A strange definition of Americans' goals, from President Obama

Yesterday President Obama gave a speech at the commencement ceremonies for Arizona State University. It had all the usual rah-rah, go-out-there-and-do-good lines that such commencement speeches always have. But there was a passage that struck me as odd.

Obama noted that we are going through difficult times, and asked his audience how they might be preparing to deal with the difficulty after they leave school. Then he said:

....it may be tempting to fall back on the formulas for success that have been pedaled so frequently in recent years. It goes something like this: You're taught to chase after all the usual brass rings; you try to be on this "who's who" list or that top 100 list; you chase after the big money and you figure out how big your corner office is; you worry about whether you have a fancy enough title or a fancy enough car.

That's the message that's sent each and every day, or has been in our culture for far too long -- that through material possessions, through a ruthless competition pursued only on your own behalf -- that's how you will measure success.

Do you know ANYONE who is taught to regard success in this way? A "fancy enough" title or car? A corner office? Money just for money's sake? Pursuing these "only on your own behalf"?

Did any of you fathers out there sit little 10-year-old Jimmy or 12-year-old Julie on your knee and say to them, "When you have a career, you have to try for the fanciest car you can get, and that corner office is more important than anything. Screw everyone around you, get everything for yourself"? Did you instruct them to make money, money, money, to the exclusion of all else?

Neither did I, nor did anyone else I know. My dad certainly didn't say anything like that to me. His main advice, was that he wanted me to be happy in whatever I did. Certainly it's true that happiness is more difficult when you don't have enough food, or don't have a roof over your head. Need for those material things is part of the human condition, and you can no more avoid them than you can flap your arms and fly. So PART of your goals must be to get enough to prevent them from adversely impacting the REST of your goals: Having enough friends, playing in a band, seeing your kids grow up happy too, seeing your neighbor get through an unexpected difficulty (maybe with your help) etc.

Who, exactly, was Obama talking about? There are probably a few people around like that, who chase ONLY the dollar, the corner office, a Rolls-Royce. But, do you know any? In your neighborhood? Or the next neighborhood over? Or any of the neighborhoods within miles of yours? Aren't they pretty few and far between, compared to the vast majority (rich and poor) whose goals are sensible?

Which brings me to my next question: WHY did Obama put forth such a warped view of most Americans' goals? He spent the next several minutes bashing people with the silly goals he described, and his criticisms would be correct... only there aren't any. Not compared to the actual goals of practically all of his real audience.

But in his urging of people to disavow extreme selfishness and materialism (which most of them were already doing), he was also urging them to shed individual initiative, drive, and the basic self-interest (a very different thing) that we all have. Work for the common good, was his theme.

This entire country, the United States of America, was founded on the basic idea that the entire society will prosper best (however imperfectly) if people work for the good of themselves and their situation, made their own decisions, and took the consequences and learned from them. That was the Great American Experiment, something that had never been tried until then. And it produced the most prosperous, free country the world has ever seen, though again imperfect as any society of imperfect humans will be.

It's been my experience that leftists in this country regularly make up silly things that others have never said or done, attribute those things to them, and then bash them for it anyway. Obama seems to be doing exactly that. A very strange thing to do, to people just beginning their careers. Does he really want them to shed their drive, their initiative, their desire for prosperity and freedom?

My ambition used to be to steal a few pigs, rape a few local women, and hide in the mountains like the geurillas in Che Guevara's army. Sounded like fun. Then Castro took over and wasn't all that much different from Batista, just another fearless leader. Bugger.